She smiled at this possibility, sure of herself, knowing well how weak the strongest man is before the weakest of her sex, when he comes with a certain challenge in his eyes. "So Sassoon is coming, is he? Good!" she said musingly, a little far-off mockery in her smile; and to herself she rehearsed again the scene she had prepared, coddling her cheek against her bare soft arm, dreamily awake. She would receive him with carefully simulated cordiality there below in the dusky boarding-house parlor; she could even lead him to believe that he might dare anything; and suddenly, when she had led him to indiscretions, she would say suddenly, as if the thought had just suggested itself: "What! you have no flowers. You shall wear mine!" She smiled a little more maliciously at the thought of the look that would come into those heavy foolish eyes at this. Then, taking a few violets from her corsage, she would fix them in his buttonhole, saying: "No, no; look up at the ceiling while I fix them nicely--so!" And, when she had coaxed him into a ridiculous craning of his neck, she would deftly pin the hundred-dollar bill on the lapel under the little cluster of purple, and turning him toward the mirror, say, with a mocking farewell courtesy: "Mr. Albert Edward Sassoon, I have the pleasure of returning your visiting-card!" She was so content with this bit of romance that she laughed aloud. "Hello! what's up?" said Snyder, taking away the tooth-mug. Dodo could not restrain her admiration. "You know, Snyder," she said seriously, "I am really very clever!" But she did not particularize. She had a feeling that Snyder, who watched over her in a faithful, adoring, dog-like way, might not quite approve. She did not know quite what made her feel this, for they had not exchanged intimacies; yet she felt occasionally in Snyder's glance, when she met it unawares, a dormant uneasy apprehension. "Now for it!" she thought, and taking up the last note, unstamped, she tore it open. "Miss Doré Baxter, Dr. "To Miss Evangelica Pim "Four weeks' lodging, third floor double room front at $10 per week ...............................................$40 "Kindly call to see me as to above account." "Four--impossible!" exclaimed Doré, bolt upright, now thoroughly awake. But instantly she repressed her emotions, lest Snyder might guess the cause. She made a rapid calculation, and discovered that in fact she had to face four deficiencies instead of three. But finances never long dismayed her. "Anyhow," she thought, "I can turn over the champagne. If only Winona raised something on the orchids! There are a dozen ways, but I must give it some attention!"